By Alhagie Jobe
The government of The Gambia has announced it has discovered one of the most serious economic crimes in government during the past twenty-two years of the Second Republic.
According to a statement from the Office of the President on Monday, the cluster of issues concerns the procurement of petroleum and hence the institutions involved include the Ministry of Petroleum, the Gambia National Petroleum Company (GNPC) and the Board of GNPC.
“All those suspected to be involved are currently helping the competent security officers in the execution of their mandate to investigate into the matter. Government will ensure that right examples are set in accordance with the laws of the country to prevent the occurrence of such incidents” the Gambia government announced in a press release issued on Monday.
It could be recalled that over the weekend, Gambia government security agents mounted a mass arrest of top government officials mostly from the Ministry of Petroleum and detained them at the notorious National Intelligent Agency headquarters in Banjul.
Among the top government officials rounded up over the weekend are Nuha Touray, Secretary to Cabinet at the Office of the President, Fafa Sanyang, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum, Momodou Badjie, managing director of Gambia National Petroleum Company (GNPC), Seedy Kanyi, general manager of Gambia Transport Service Corporation which was set up to replace GPTC and under the management of the Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation and Muntaga Sallah, former permanent secretary, Ministry of Petroleum, who is currently standing trial at the Banjul Magistrate Court for stealing and abuse of office.
It was since not clear as to what was behind the mass arrests though but sources hinted that it might have had some connection with a scandal at the said ministry but the statement from the government has finally confirmed the scandal.
